Hi Lee,
Thanks for the rant. First drawer stuff.
If I might quibble a bit though (you didn't think I'd let you off that easy, now did you?), I was not at all impressed with your logic regarding the cost of labor in the U.S. I think that it is important, on a democratic forum such as this thread, to keep a sense of perspective.
Is the U.S. blue collar worker paid too much? I hardly think so. Should he be forced to compete with grossly underpaid workers in 3rd world sweatshops? I hardly think so. And just who is foisting this unfair competition on the American worker? Why, it's the same self-serving class of economic parasites who are, according to the AFL-CIO, raping the worker and failing to reward the shareholder:
Inequality between the shop floor and the executive suite is at an all-time high. According to Business Week, the average CEO made 42 times the average blue-collar worker’s pay in 1980, 85 times in 1990 and a staggering 531 times in 2000.
aflcio.org
The greed of this class is astonishing as well as reprehensible in a free society. As I see it, they have no moral or ethical compass, no sense of fair play and no understanding of the utterly corrosive nature of their grasping. Why, it's enough to make me lose faith in the system.
That said, why in the world would you think GWB would care to come across as a feel good President? Since he represents the interests of the executive suite and the boardroom, there is absolutely no motivation whatsoever to care about psychologically propping up the spirit of the average consumer. As we can see, the rewards to the executive suite have become de-linked to performance there. Profits can go down, unemployment rise, shareholders can get shorn and yet executive pay and perks continue to rise.
No, GWB will give us all a good dose of sackcloth and ashes, while the goodies keep flowing to his cronies and thus back to him. All under the cover of a high toned moralizing about the need for the guilty in the economy to heal themselves.
Me? I'd rather party.
-Ray |
